Appeals court upholds California ban on gay conversion therapy

California's first-in-the-nation law barring licensed therapists from counseling minors to change their sexual orientation from gay to straight was upheld by a federal appeals court Thursday.

State lawmakers acted reasonably in limiting a treatment that health groups found to be harmful to minors, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in an opinion published today. Protecting the well-being of children is a legitimate state interest, and the law "does not violate the free speech rights of practitioners or minor patients, is neither vague nor overbroad, and does not violate parents' fundamental rights," the court said.

The decision comes less than two weeks after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill making his state the second to adopt such a ban.

California's ban on "sexual-orientation change efforts" was passed by lawmakers in August 2012. The law states that being gay "is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency or shortcoming" and cites an American Psychological Association task force that urged patients and parents to avoid the counseling because it can pose "critical health risks," including depression and suicidal thoughts.

The law bars doctors, psychologists, family therapists and social workers from providing sexual-orientation conversion therapy to patients under 18. Violators are subject to discipline by state licensing entities.

The law doesn't bar unlicensed providers, such as religious leaders, from administering the therapy or prevent licensed providers from referring minors to religious leaders to get it, according to the ruling. Mental-health providers can still express to minor patients their views about homosexuality or conversion therapy and recommend the therapy.

Therapists, parents, patients and counseling groups supporting the practice filed two lawsuits to overturn the law, claiming no studies show the therapy harms children. They also said juveniles benefit from the counseling and that the law illegally quells doctor-patient speech.

Two federal judges in Sacramento, Calif., reached opposite conclusions in separate lawsuits about whether the 2012 law, originally scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, should be enforced while the court challenges proceeded.

One judge agreed that gay-conversion therapists would probably succeed on the merits of their case and granted an injunction blocking enforcement. The other sided with the state and refused to block the law.

Both sides appealed to the San Francisco panel, which put the law on hold in December.